What happened
Hudson's Bay Company, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, will buy Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in a $2.65 billion deal announced Thursday. The luxury retailers will be combined under a new entity, Saks Global, but will continue to operate under their existing brand names. Amazon and Salesforce will have minority stakes in the new company.

Who said what
"We're thrilled to take this step in bringing together these iconic luxury names," said HBC CEO Richard Baker. The merger comes as "consumers are showing restraint — particularly on prestige purchases — as they tussle with high inflation and interest rates," The Washington Post said.

HBC and Neiman Marcus have been in talks for years, but while the merger was anticipated, Amazon's stake adds "a bit of spice," GlobalData's Neil Saunders told The Associated Press. Amazon, which wants to be a bigger player in luxury retail, will share its expertise in logistics and personalization technology with Saks Global to help the new powerhouse thrive in the increasingly crucial online market.

What next?
Federal antitrust regulators could scrutinize the deal, and a lawsuit is "possible," said John Kirkwood, a professor at Seattle University School of Law, in the Post. "But this doesn't jump out at you as a really powerful case."

What happened
Pigs may not fly, but hippopotamuses do — at least momentarily. When hippos get moving, all four feet leave the ground for about 15% of their stride cycles, researchers at Britain's Royal Veterinary College reported in the journal PeerJ. That 0.3 seconds in the air may not sound impressive, but hippos weigh up to 2.2 tons.

Who said what
Scientists have been able to catalog how other large animals move on land, but "hippos were a big missing part of the puzzle," lead researcher John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics, told CNN. The massive animals are hard to study because they are "incredibly dangerous, they tend to be most active at night, and they spend a lot of their time in the water."

The study "places hippos somewhere between elephants and rhinos in terms of the athletic prowess," The Guardian said. Elephants move with a "standard walking gain even at high speed," but hippos always trot. "We were pleasantly surprised to see how hippos get airborne when they move quickly," Hutchinson told the BBC. "It's really impressive."

What next?
The research "could help inform the way that hippos are kept in captivity" and reveal when they are injured, CNN said.